VMware pushes VMworld Europe virtualization show to October 2010

If you’ve been following the discussions about VMware and VMworld on Twitter, you might have seen the rumors circulating about VMware pushing the VMworld Europe 2010 virtualization trade show further out — moving it from February to the October time frame.  Some of the early responders don’t seem too pleased with this decision.

Depending on how vocal people get with their frustration about the date change, this could prove to be the second PR blunder with VMworld in as little as two months.  The show has finally put the fear of a VMware-only event behind it after the company was called out on the wording changes made to its exhibitor/sponsorship agreement document that seemed to specifically target its competitors.  Microsoft and Citrix may still be unhappy with this decision, but it seems to have blown over for the community as they gear up for the big event.

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So moving on, what’s the big deal about changing a show’s date, anyway?  Why would this keep VMware community members up at night?  There seems to be some negative feelings coming from outside of the hallowed halls of VMware.  Folks don’t seem all that interested with having the two shows, VMworld US and VMworld Europe, taking place so closely together.

The rumor of the event’s date change was made fact through an official statement made on the VMworld.com blog site:

We are pleased to announce that VMworld Europe will be held in October 2010. The VMworld Europe conference will follow our Global VMworld conference, scheduled for San Francisco in September 2010, to ensure that we are able to roll out key initiatives to customers and partners more quickly and consistently worldwide. As the leading virtualization conference, VMworld will continue to offer its diverse global audience the latest information on how virtualization is revolutionizing the next generation of computing.

And with that, and not much else in the form of news, information, or reasons behind the announcement, rumor became truth.  If we break it down, what does it mean?  And why are community members already voicing concerns for something that is more than a year away?

Again, most of the problems or negative feelings stem from the fact that the two conferences will now be only weeks apart from each other.  In the past, VMworld Europe and VMworld US had a six-month gap between them.  Moving the European show back 8 months leads to a few concerns.

In the near term, Europeans who hadn’t planned on attending VMworld 2009 in San Francisco must now wait an entire year instead of a few months to attend the next show.  And if they attended VMworld Europe 2009 in February, it will have been a year and 8 months since their last event.  Quite a large gap between the two shows.

Many customers looked forward to being able to attend both shows in order to find out the latest information.  With a 6-month gap between events, it was a perfect opportunity for people to see Beta or futures at one VMworld show, and then get the final scoop on a product or technology at the next.  In addition to knowledge gain, going to both events also afforded customers the chance to network with peers from around the world in person.

But with the global economy in the shape that it is in, customers are finding it more and more difficult than ever to convince employers that they need to attend both shows, especially now that they will only be weeks apart.  The keynotes, labs, and breakout sessions are certainly going to be identical to one another.  Virtualization may be a fast-changing technology, but come on, it isn’t that fast!  Asking an employer to cross the ocean just to network with peers probably won’t make the budget.

Any news that comes out in the September timeframe during VMworld US will be picked over, over-analyzed, and then talked about to death over the nearly three weeks between events.  This would translate to stale information being reported during VMworld Europe, which is no fun for anyone — press or consumers alike.

And just like customers dealing with budget constraints, partners and vendors will also find it difficult to budget money and time to participate in two nearly “identical” shows that are only weeks apart.  Larger companies such as Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, or EMC may have the money and people to pull off two shows virtually back to back, but smaller vendors will have to pick and choose wisely to get the most bang for their buck.  And since even VMware calls the VMworld US show its “Global VMworld conference,” which show do you think most vendors will attempt to sponsor?

Things can’t be all bad with moving the show to October, can it?  I’m sure there are numerous positive reasons as to why VMware moved the date for VMworld Europe.  Now we just have to wait to see what those reasons are when or if VMware officially responds.  And no, I don’t think that it will suffice “to roll out key initiatives to customers and partners more quickly and consistently worldwide.”  Not with VMware’s audience.